Goldman Sachs didn’t pay 2016 bonuses to about 100 investment bankers, letting a larger than usual crowd of underperformers know they’re probably better off elsewhere. This is a marked change from the past, when many ‘bottom tier’ bankers still got something. 

Goldman Sachs typically places staff into one of 5 performance tiers, known as quintiles, during its annual performance reviews. Members of the lowest quintile missed a bonus this year – and their bonuses were, in turn, passed along to top performers. The bank’s compensation ratio - pay to revenue - rose to 38.1% for 2016 from 37.5% in 2015.

Goldman Sachs also denied bonuses to some employees in the securities division, run by Isabelle Ealet, Pablo Salame and Ashok Varadhan, though the number affected was more in line with previous years. The fixed-income business in that unit has already seen broad job cuts, and client activity there improved in the 2nd half of the year.